Abstract

Search processes play a fundamental role in physical, chemical and biological systems. Examples are diffusion-limited encounters of molecules involved in a chemical reaction; the search for a global minimum in a complex energy landscape; proteins searching for their specific target sites on DNA; dwell times in mechanochemical cycles of molecular motors ; animal foraging; automated searches of registers in databases, or search engines exploring the Internet. The aim of our exploratory workshop is to bring together leading scientists to discuss recent theoretical and experimental progress in studies of search processes, and to advance the synergies between the communities working in condensed matter and statistical physics, quantitative biology, and mathematics.